Israel ready to 'stand alone' on Iran, Netanyahu says

[Shah-i-Kot]

Israel ready to 'stand alone' on Iran, Netanyahu says

By FRANCE 24 the 01/10/2013 - 19:21

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN on Tuesday that Israel was ready to "stand alone" if necessary to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and called Iran’s President Hassan Rohani “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that his country would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons even if it must "stand alone", as a nuclear-armed Iran would continue to seek the destruction of Israel.
"Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said. "If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone."
He went on to warn that recent conciliatory remarks on the nuclear issue made by Iran’s new president, Hassan Rohani, were merely a ploy to get the international community to ease its tough sanctions regime while Tehran continues to develop a nuclear weapon.
“Rohani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” the Israeli premier told the delegates. “A wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community."
Iran an "unforgiving regime"
The Israeli leader said all Iranian presidents serve the same “unforgiving regime” – for which the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dictates policy – and urged the international community not to back down.
“Don’t let up the pressure [on Iran],” Netanyahu told the General Assembly, adding that the only deal that could be made with Rohani was one that “fully dismantles Iran’s nuclear weapons programme”.
The only way to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons is to combine tough sanctions with a credible military threat, Netanyahu said.
He also accused Iran of supporting the Syrian regime, which he said massacres its own people and uses chemical weapons against them.
Following Netanyahu’s address Khodadad Seifi, a deputy ambassador at Iran's UN mission, told the General Assembly that the Israeli premier’s remarks had been "inflammatory".
(FRANCE 24 with wires)


Israel ready to 'stand alone' on Iran, Netanyahu says - UNITED NATIONS - FRANCE 24

[Shah-i-Kot]

Time ‘has run out’ for Iran nuclear work


Time 'has run out' for Iran nuclear work

Source: Intelligence agencies will conclude clock has struck, action required


F. Michael Maloof




WASHINGTON – Israel’s military practiced long-range missions and mid-air refueling over the past weekend even as Iran made clear that it will continue with the development of its nuclear program, which Israel is convinced is a cover for making nuclear weapons.
In fact, Israel believes Iran is pursuing negotiations with the U.S. to buy time to finalize its ability to enrich existing low-enriched uranium stockpiles to high-enriched uranium needed to make some seven or eight nuclear weapons.


But there’s now word that time may be short.
“The coming weeks probably represent the last opportunity for Iran and the international community to reach an enforceable deal that will dismantle Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, before Israel concludes that time has run, that Iran has gotten too close to creating its first atomic bombs, and that the time for a military strike has arrived,” according to regional expert Yaakov Lappin, whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post.
Despite assurances from Iran that it is not embarked on a nuclear weapons program, Israeli officials say that Iran has not halted uranium enrichment with an increasing number of centrifuges that extract more enriched uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons.
Israeli officials believe that centrifuges at the underground nuclear facilities in Natanz and Qom continue the enrichment process unabated.
In addition, these sources assert that the heavy water plutonium facility at Arak also continues its production.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that talks between Western powers and Iran on October 15-16 aren’t going to amount to anything and will only buy Iran more time to enrich more uranium for what he says are nuclear weapons.
“A bad deal is worse than no deal,” Netanyahu told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Iran “will ask for a partial lifting of sanctions for cosmetic concessions that would leave them with the ability to have a nuclear weapons capability,” he said.
He even suggested that Iran was more dangerous than already nuclear-armed North Korea, dedicated to spreading terror in the world.
“You demand enrichment if you want to build nuclear weapons,” he said.
“The speech given by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations in which he warned that Israel would act alone against Iran if it needed to, is an authentic warning and serves a dual purpose,” Lappin said.
In effect, Netahyahu’s speech is said to have renewed the declaration that there is a credible military threat by Iran, even though such warnings had waned significantly since August when the U.S. didn’t carry out a military strike against Iran’s ally, Syria.
“A diminished threat of military force leaves diplomatic efforts with Iran almost no chance of success,” Lappin said. “It leaves Iran with virtually no incentive to stop its nuclear progress, despite the painful economic sanctions it faces.”
He said things just changed, though.
“(Netanyahu) has placed the military threat firmly back on the table, lest Iran forget that even if the U.S. will not act militarily any time soon, Israel most certainly will if it must,” Lappin said.
The second point of Netanyahu’s U.N. speech, Lappin said, was to serve notice to the international community about the urgency with which Israel views Iran’s nuclear development program, and to assure that Israel will act soon, with or without U.S. assistance.
“Should the international community continue to allow Iran to buy more time for its nuclear program, as it has done for more than a decade, after Netanyahu’s warning, it will not be able to respond with surprise when Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear sites,” Lappin said.
Lappin, who is close to high-level Israeli officials, said that Israel doesn’t intend to miss its window to act, since it would violate a central tenet of Israeli defense doctrine of not to depend on any external power such as the U.S. to deal with existential security threats to Israel.
He said that Israel’s clock in gauging Iran’s nuclear progress “ticks faster” than that of the U.S., whose analysts believe that Iran isn’t as far along in developing a nuclear weapon as Israel does.
“Once Israeli intelligence agencies and senior military command levels conclude that the clock has struck one minute to midnight, no amount of pressure from allies will succeed in dissuading it from acting in self-preservation,” Lappin said.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Israel: We Will Go It Alone Against Nuclear Iran - IBTimes UK


Israel: We Will Go It Alone Against Nuclear Iran


By Mark Piggott

The Israeli air force is preparing to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, its own website confirms. Israeli jet fighters, including F15s and F16s, have taken part in extensive exercises alongside the Greek air force, practising midair refuelling and "dummy runs" in a show of force to Iran and the international community.
Speaking ahead of the Geneva conference (15-16 October), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the west that Iran is not to be trusted, despite friendlier relations between the US and the Middle Eastern nation since the election of its new moderate leader, Hasan Rowhani, in June.
As well as speaking at the United Nations, Netanyahu called his counterparts in Britain and France, David Cameron and Francois Hollande, insisting that sanctions against Iran are having the desired effect and that Israel will if necessary stand alone in denying Iran its nuclear ambitions.
Netanyahu's tough stance may be causing some frustration internationally - many critics feel they've been hearing the same warnings for decades - but the PM still seems popular at home. A recent poll found two-thirds of Israelis do not think President Obama will be able to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons, despite his promises to the contrary.
Many Israelis continue to believe Iran poses an existential threat to their country, particularly in light of inflammatory comments made by Rowhani's predecessor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On leaving office Ahmadinejad told supporters: "I will inform you with God as my witness, a devastating storm is on the way that will uproot the basis of Zionism."
Israel is adamant that its near-neighbour and bitter rival can never be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction. Iran has always insisted its uranium enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes and hopes to ease sanctions which have crippled its economy at the Geneva conference.
US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said last week that Iran still has much to do to convince the west of its intentions, but that diplomacy remains the best way forward "in large part because the alternative has a lot of incredibly grave consequences that would go along with it."

[Shah-i-Kot]

Netanyahu makes a case for a preemptive strike | The Times of Israel

Netanyahu makes a case for a preemptive strike

In Yom Kippur War anniversary speech, prime minister suggests that inaction on Iran is costlier than international opprobrium

By Haviv Rettig Gur October 15, 2013, 5:16 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a thinly veiled defense of a possible Israeli preemptive strike on Iran during a Knesset commemoration Tuesday of the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. In a speech to MKs about the war, in which Israel was surprised by a coordinated Arab invasion on the northern and southern fronts, Netanyahu explained that IDF soldiers who fought in the bitter battles of that war “saved us from paying the price of complacency.”

“In the end we won a great victory, but the lessons of the war have stayed with us these 40 years,” Netanyahu said.
“The first lesson is to never underestimate a threat, never underestimate an enemy, never ignore the signs of danger. We can’t assume the enemy will act in ways that are convenient for us. The enemy can surprise us. Israel will not fall asleep on its watch again,” he vowed.
The second lesson, he added, was that “we can’t surrender the option of a preventive strike. It is not necessary in every situation, and it must be weighed carefully and seriously. But there are situations in which paying heed to the international price of such a step is outweighed by the price in blood we will pay if we absorb a strategic strike that will demand a response later on, and perhaps too late.”
Netanyahu added: “A preventive war, even a preventive strike, is among the most difficult decisions a government can take, because it will never be able to prove what would have happened if it had not acted. But the key difference between the [1967] Six Day War and the [1973] Yom Kippur War lies first of all in the fact that in the Six Day War we launched a preventive strike that broke the chokehold our enemies had placed on us, and on Yom Kippur the government decided, despite all warnings, to absorb the full force of an enemy attack.”
The prime minister is engaged in a blitz of international meetings and interviews warning against any slackening of international sanctions directed at the Iranian regime over its nuclear enrichment program. Netanyahu has openly threatened that Israel would unilaterally attack the Iranian nuclear program if it was allowed to advance to the point where Iran was able to develop a nuclear weapon.
Sources close to the Prime Minister’s Office suggested the Tuesday speech was directed at the Iranian issue.
Netanyahu also offered hints at Israel’s negotiating position in peace talks with the Palestinians.
“The third lesson” of the war, he said, “is the strategic importance of buffer zones. [Israel’s] control of the Golan [Heights] and the Sinai Peninsula [in 1973] prevented an enemy penetration deep into the country” in the first days of the war.
Press reports sourced to leaks from the peace talks with the Palestinians have suggested in recent days that Israel seeks to retain security control over the Jordan Valley as a buffer zone to the east.
And, Netanyahu said, “there is a fourth lesson: Peace is attained from a position of strength. In the Yom Kippur War, despite the enemy’s excellent opening position, they learned they could not best us with weapons. Five years later, [Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat and [prime minister Menachem] Begin signed a peace deal, and later [peace accords were signed] with Jordan.
“Now we are engaged in a serious investment in [making] peace with the Palestinians,” Netanyahu added. “Peace was achieved when our neighbors understood we are powerful and will not disappear.”
Later Tuesday, while observing a training exercise of the 7th Armored Corps Brigade on the Golan Heights, Netanyahu spoke about the P5+1 nuclear talks underway in Geneva between Iranian nuclear negotiators and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.
“I think that it would be a historic mistake to ease up on Iran without it dismantling the nuclear capabilities it is developing,” Netanyahu said. “Iran is now on the ropes, and it is possible to employ sanctions at their fullest in order to achieve the desired result. I hope that the international community will do this, and I call upon it to do so.”

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.boston.com/2013/10/23/bgcom-israel/8iYNGcRmKwKqPlzZoZJ1HK/singlepage.html

Netanyahu presses Kerry on Iran

By Lara Jakes / Associated Press /



ROME (AP) — Israel’s prime minister urged the US on Wednesday to be as tough in nuclear negotiations with Iran as it is about dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. The comments put new pressure on Washington to convince two of its key Mideast allies that America will not sell out their interests as it tentatively warms diplomacy with Tehran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the start of a seven-hour meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said the world should not accept what he called a ‘‘partial deal’’ with Iran. He said that would include any agreement that falls short of requiring Iran to end all enrichment on uranium, get rid of all fissile material, and close water plants and underground bunkers that he said are only necessary to build a nuclear bomb.
Negotiations between Iran and world powers, which resumed several weeks ago after a six-month lull, have come nowhere near demanding the level of tough restrictions on Tehran that Israel wants. The nuclear talks also have spooked Saudi Arabia, spurring Kerry to meet with top officials from both Mideast nations about an issue that has unified the two longtime adversaries.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, and its capabilities necessary for energy and medical uses.
‘‘A partial deal that leaves Iran with these capabilities is a bad deal,’’ Netanyahu told Kerry at the start of their meeting in Rome. ‘‘You wisely insisted there wouldn’t be a partial deal with Syria. You’re right. If (Syrian President Bashar) Assad had said, ‘Well, I'd like to keep, I don’t know, 20 percent, 50 percent, or 80 percent of my chemical weapons capability,’ you would have refused, and correctly so.’’
Netanyahu also said the US should retain its harsh economic sanctions against Iran until it dismantles its nuclear program. ‘‘That’s what got them into these renewed negotiations in the first place,’’ he said. Obama administration officials are weighing whether to ease some sanctions — even as some US lawmakers in Congress are eyeing plans to tighten the economic hurdles — if Iran takes steps to scale back its program.
Kerry, who spent the last three days in meetings with European and Mideast officials that focused mostly on Iran and Syria, said the US would continue to do everything it can to prevent Tehran from building nuclear weapons. But he stopped short of agreeing with Netanyahu’s demands.
‘‘We will need to know that actions are being taken which make it crystal clear, undeniably clear, failsafe to the world, that whatever (Iranian) program is pursued is indeed a peaceful program,’’ Kerry said. ‘‘No deal is better than a bad deal. But if this can be solved satisfactorily, diplomatically, it is clearly better for everyone.’’
Neither Israel nor Saudi Arabia has been included in the world powers’ negotiations with Iran.
Senior Saudi officials this week described a widening gulf between Washington and Riyadh over US policy in Iran and Syria. Saudi Arabia also wants the US to send more military support to opposition groups seeking to oust Assad from power as an end to Syria’s 2 ½ civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people. The Iranian government has been the key benefactor to Assad, and has sent military forces, weapons and funding to support his government against the rebellion.
Both the US and Saudi Arabia are working to start talks between Assad and opposition leaders to create a new government in Syria that, ultimately, would not include Assad. Syrian National Coalition President Ahmad al-Jarba on Tuesday told reporters in London that he was not ready to agree to the negotiations, but opposition officials will vote on whether to participate in coming days.
The impasse over the Syrian negotiations comes as a team of inspectors with the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons work to dismantle Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile, which is considered one of the world’s largest, after a deadly Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack.
Kerry met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in Paris on Monday in what he described as a ‘‘delightful and very, very constructive’’ discussion. He brushed off suggestions of diplomatic chilliness between the two nations.
On Iran, ‘‘I think they understand exactly what the United States is engaged in,’’ Kerry said a day later in London when asked about tensions between Washington and Riyadh. ‘‘And I reiterated our position in any negotiation that our eyes are wide open, actions are what will speak to us, not words.’’
In Rome, Kerry and Netanyahu also discussed ongoing peace talks between Israel and Palestinian authorities who were meeting in Jerusalem even as officials warned about threats that would rise in the event of a stalemate.
Netanyahu said any agreement must result in ‘‘a peace that Israel can defend by itself, for itself against any conceivable threat.’’ He called the creation of a Palestinian state ‘‘a fundament for any peace.’’ Kerry praised Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for engaging in negotiations but offered no details.
Back in Israel, Netanyahu chief negotiator Tzipi Livni described a growing international impatience with the peace process during a speech to visiting Jewish leaders from around the world. She noted that Israeli settlement construction is causing great damage to Israel’s international image, and that a stalemate could lead to a ‘‘world supporting the Palestinians, not just as a vague idea of a Palestinian state.’’
‘‘So stalemate can lead to a Palestinian state that would be forced on us, not as the outcome of negotiations that represent the Israeli interest, but as something that the world would force us to accept,’’ Livni said.

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

If they kill each other its in our favor.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Former intelligence chief says Israel does not need US permission to strike Iran


Former intelligence chief says Israel does not need US permission to strike Iran

Thursday, 24 October 2013 18:07

In a rare interview with the American magazine The New Republic, former IDF intelligence chief Amos Yadlin has revealed that the coming year will be the decisive year for resolving the perceived nuclear threat from Iran, and that Israel does not require a green light from the US to attack Iran because it is willing to unilaterally strike if it concludes that doing so is necessary.
Throughout the interview Yadlin stressed that Israel should not and does not oppose any diplomatic efforts "that will halt the Iranian dash toward the nuclear bomb", but also warned that unless a reasonable deal is reached in the coming year, and by reasonable he means a deal that meets Israel's strict requirements, then he believes that Israel will have the "legitimacy to take preventive action to stop Iran".
While he was still intelligence chief back in 2010, Yadlin strongly opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak's push for a military strike against Iran, saying that diplomacy must be given a chance. However during the interview he clarfies that: "I supported them on the notion that if we come to the fork in the road, where we have to choose between very tough alternatives-the 'bomb' or the 'bombing'-I’m with the prime minister, for 'the bombing'."
And it is obvious that Yadlin now believes that such a fork in the road is fast approaching. As he says, "the Iranians are now very close". Indeed he foresees Israel taking military action "in late 2013 or early 2014, especially if America sees that Iran is not serious about reaching an acceptable agreement and only continues to buy time." He adds that by then, "the US will accept an Israeli attack".
However Yadlin also revealed that Israel is willing to carry out a strike against Iran even if the US was not in full agreement, affirming that, "Israel doesn’t need America on D-Day. It can do it alone. It even can cope with the day after, but it does need the US for the decade after."
He explained that while an Israeli strike would theoretically disable Iarn's nuclear programme for about five years, more damage could be done if the US was on board.
According to the interviewer, Yadlin "is widely considered one of the nation’s leading security authorities". He was one of the eight Israeli F-16 pilots that destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 and is also thought to have been a key player in Israel’s discovery and destruction of a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.

[Khilji]

israel has to wait for the go of the usa specialy now where a new leader of iran is on power

[Shah-i-Kot]

israel has to wait for the go of the usa specialy now where a new leader of iran is on power

Not really. Its the other way around. Israel's got too much power in US Congress and Senate. US foreign policy is opposed to Israeli strike on Iran, but cant stop Israel from unilateral strike.

[Khilji]

Not really. Its the other way around. Israel's got too much power in US Congress and Senate. US foreign policy is opposed to Israeli strike on Iran, but cant stop Israel from unilateral strike.

no because the usa try to find out how far they can go with the new leader of iran and if this new leader of iran would aloud us inspectors in iran because of their nuclear program.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Israel, Saudis speaking same language on Iran | Middle East | World Bulletin

Israel, Saudis speaking same language on Iran
Former Israeli foreign minister Livni said that Israel needed Arab cooperation on Iran.



World Bulletin / News Desk
Saudi Arabia and Israel are united in their opposition to Iran, but they cannot cooperate as long the Palestinian conflict continues, Israel's chief peace negotiator said on Thursday.
"When you hear the Saudis talking about what needs to be done in order to prevent a (nuclear-armed) Iran, I mean it sounds familiar," said Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister who is leading talks with the Palestinians.
"I think that you can hear that Arabic sounds familiar to Hebrew when it comes to Iran," she said, making a rare public linkage between the goals of Israel and Saudi Arabia, which have long been enemies and have no diplomatic ties.
Saudi Arabia has grown increasingly frustrated with perceived U.S. weakness in confronting Syria's civil war and with Washington's recent diplomatic engagement with Tehran - concerns Israel shares.
Three years ago, diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks said that Saudi King Abdullah had frequently urged the United States to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear programme. Israel has also hinted at military action, saying it was prepared to stand alone to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing parliament last week, hailed the rare commonality of Israeli-Arab interests as something that could help advance decades-old peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Livni, however, suggested that was unrealistic, telling a conference organised by the Jerusalem Post that Arab states first wanted to see progress in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking before contemplating any change of policy toward Israel.
"In order to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon, we need to cooperate with those (who) understand that Iran is a threat to them as well," she said, speaking in English.
"But unfortunately, the open conflict with the Palestinians makes it impossible or very difficult for them to act with Israel."
Last week, Saudi Arabia cited international failure to grant Palestinians a state as one of the reasons it had renounced a coveted seat on the United Nations Security Council.
"It is now very clear that the interests of the State of Israel (and) the moderates or the pragmatic in the region are the same," Livni said. "So we need on one hand to continue putting pressure on Iran ... and simultaneously to move forward in the peace process."
Both issues were on the agenda of a lengthy meeting between Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday in Rome that exposed differences over the Iranian issue.
Israel has repeatedly called for the effective dismantling of Iran's nuclear programme, while the United States has suggested better safeguards are needed to ensure it is peaceful.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, revived in July after a three-year hiatus, have shown few signs of progress.
"I cannot share with you today what we are doing exactly in the negotiations room, but the basic idea is the need to end the conflict," Livni said.
"In order to do so, we need to address all the core issues," she added, in a reference to the borders of a Palestinian state, security arrangements, the future of settlements and Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Livni said both sides had decided "that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed", effectively ruling out any interim accord that many Israeli leaders are believed to favour.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, a senior Palestinian official described the talks as very difficult.
"There is a long road ahead but we are following the instructions from President (Mahmoud) Abbas and are very keen to reach peace," the official said.